Fig. 319.—Ancient Roman Panel, Florence.
Fig. 320.—Ovolo and Astragal Mouldings; Roman.
Fig. 321.—Ogee and Fluted Cavetto Moulding; Jupiter Tonans.
The general arrangement of a Roman house was rectangular in plan, with, and sometimes without, a vestibule in front. The front door opened on a passage called the prothyrum which led to the atrium, an open court partly roofed; the opening was in the centre, and was called the impluvium; exactly under it in the floor was a tank called the compluvium; this received the rain water. In large houses the atrium roof was supported by columns, then the atrium was sometimes called the cavædium, at the end of which opened out three rooms the larger and central one was called the tablinum, and the two side ones alæ; these were the rooms where the family records, documents, histories, deeds, &c., were kept. A passage led from the atrium to the principal private reception-room, called the peristylium, which had a roof partly open to the sky. This room was the finest in the house, and was richly decorated with rare marbles, bronzes, and fresco paintings where the owner was wealthy. Round the peristyle were arranged the smaller rooms, such as the parlours called exedræ, the chapels lararia, and the picture galleries pinacothecæ. Kitchens and other offices were behind, as also were the various sleeping-rooms. Some of the rooms were badly lighted, and had to depend for the light from the doors or artificial light, but in some cases windows, rather small in size, were placed high up in the walls.
Fig. 322.—Ogee Decorated, and Astragal; Jupiter Stator.
The walls of the Pompeian houses were richly decorated in strong colouring, where vermilion, black, green, and orange predominated. The subjects were figure groups, animals, birds, and grotesques of all kinds, encased in fantastic architectural framings (Fig. 323). Sometimes a dead wall of the yard would be painted elaborately to represent a garden. Sculpture also decorated the apartments, the floors were in mosaic, and the ceiling richly panelled and decorated. Roman, Greek, and Pompeian ornament will again be noticed in the second volume under the minor arts of these countries.
